We interrupt this tech talk for musicHaving unpacked the H400 from its sturdy double box, I set it up in my office and connected it to my Amphion One18 nearfield speakers. While I dug further into the guts of the H400 (in the virtual sense, not literally), I started playing music. Because the only network-connection option is wired Ethernet, connecting to my home network required no fussing with passwords. I downloaded the Hegel Connect app to my iPhone 15, and it quickly found the H400. From the Home screen, I had immediate access to Airable internet radio and podcasts, and via UPnP to my Synology NAS, which runs MinimServer. The app also has buttons for controlling Apple AirPlay and Google Chromecast. A "Spotify" button takes you to a text screen with instructions for selecting the H400 as the "speaker" in the Spotify app, thus engaging Spotify Connect. I began playing music from my NAS-based digital library, noting some kinks in the Hegel search engine (which Ertzeid said will be addressed in a future update). I found it easiest to use folder-view navigation and directly access music in my relatively well-organized library. If your music library isn't well-sorted, this app will frustrate you until the search engine is fixed.
As soon as I started an album, the new Ultimate Collection version of John Lennon's Mind Games (Universal 0602455487100), I noticed that this amp had a tight grip on the speakers, with more punch and deep bass than I expected from the little Amphion boxes. There was a nice, wide stereo image, and the songs projected into the room well. The system with the H400 made the characteristics of the new remix clear. No remix can fix that "thuddy" 1970s drum sound, but bringing Lennon's vocals forward was a good move, and there was a zing to things without glassy brightness.
Using JPLAY, I spent hours listening to Qobuz playlists, including a vocalist-centric one intended for an amplifier listening comparison at a Connecticut Audio Society meeting (footnote 4). An a cappella version of "I Go to Pieces" performed by the 1980s country-rock group Southern Pacific grabbed my attention; the reproduction was especially 3D. The finger snaps were hard left and right, and the voices were arrayed across the wide middle, each distinct in tone and location. In the audio club comparisons, few amplifiers reproduced this well-sorted clarity; the best was my reference, the Benchmark AHB2. The Hegel's reproduction of that tune was in the same ballpark.
A little more tech talkThe last time a Hegel integrated amp was reviewed in Stereophile was 2015, when Herb Reichert reviewed the H160. Herb liked the H160 and detailed some of Hegel's then-current technologies, including the patented "SoundEngine" feed-forward distortion-reduction circuit. This circuitry in its latest form is incorporated in the H400, along with the DualAmp topology, which separates voltage and current gain stages. Hegel's website has detailed explanations of both (footnote 5). The design goal is a fast, accurate amplifier, and that's how the H400 sounds. Together, Herb's review and Hegel's notes about the H400 and the H390 document a 10-year evolution of Hegel amplifiers from DAC-and-amplification–focused to robust streamer-amplifiers ready for the future-present. (The H400 will be even more ready when Qobuz Connect happens.) According to Ertzeid, the H400's older, more powerful brother, the H600, includes the same streaming engine and will get a functionality upgrade when the new version of the Hegel app rolls out (footnote 6).
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After a few weeks in the office system, during which I can't say I noticed any marked "breaking in" over dozens of hours of musical enjoyment, I brought the H400 to the living room system and connected it to my full-range Bowers & Wilkins 808 speakers. I had just spent an hour or so listening to familiar tunes through my reference components: the dCS Bartók streamer/DAC, Benchmark LA-4 line preamplifier, and Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier. The H400 replaced all these components, plus interconnects (retail price approximately $21,500 not counting cables, so more than three times the cost of the H400). I adjusted the H400's output level to match my reference using pink noise and an SPL meter and set to relistening to that musical assortment, streamed from Qobuz using the JPLAY app. I noticed right away that the low end wasn't as taut and quick as I'd been hearing from the reference system. It was large and powerful but sounded somewhat boomy and sluggish, though not enough to spoil the music for me. The top end sparkled a bit brightly at times—not a glazed sound but leaning toward stereotypical "digital" sound quality. I wondered, was this a characteristic of the chip-based DAC? And if so, was it an unfair comparison between a commodity-priced chip and the discrete-parts dCS Ring DAC? I moved the Ethernet line to the dCS and ran its balanced analog outputs to the H400's balanced analog inputs. This made a big improvement. Many of the differences I was hearing were DAC-related—a good argument for Hegel's DAC-loop circuit, described earlier. I set up the dCS in the Hegel's DAC loop and it sounded fundamentally the same as when it was used as an external component. (In the DAC-loop setup, the dCS was receiving its digital input by S/PDIF from the Hegel DAC, jitter-reduced). Reversing the scenario, I plugged the Ethernet back into the Hegel streamer and ran the fixed-level RCA outputs to my Benchmark amplification stack (LA4, AHB2). The low end wasn't quite as boomy, but it wasn't as fast and detailed as it had been with the Bartók. The somewhat "shimmering" top end I had noticed from the H400 running by itself was back.
I keep modifying this playlist. A recent addition is Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" from their eponymous debut (24/44.1 FLAC, Epic/Qobuz), a fire-spitting musical dragon, a bundle of outrage and fury. The low bottom of the chords and beat propel it forward. After hearing it through the H400's amplifier, fed by the dCS Bartók, I felt like Godzilla had just pillaged the living room. I mean that as a compliment.
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The value propositionOver the past decade, the definition of a Hegel integrated amp has grown to include more and different input sources and functionality. Over the same period, the company's inflation-adjusted retail prices have dropped. In 2016, the Hegel H360 offered about the same power and analog input choices as the H400 at a retail price of $5700—about $7392 in 2024 dollars. Yet, the list price of the H400 is $6995. That's still a heavy lift for some budgets, but considering the amplifier's power, build quality, and full-function built-in streamer with app control, it's quite a value. Add the amplifier's excellent sound quality and tight control of various speaker loads, and the H400 is worth a close look if you're in the market for a future-facing integrated amplifier. It's a neat thing, comfortable on the internet.
Footnote 4: See open.qobuz.com/playlist/22204090. Footnote 5: See tinyurl.com/yzpr5hrv. Footnote 6: Click here for a review of the Hegel H600 in our sister publication, Hi-Fi News. The photo of its innards indicates a design and build similar to the H400. Footnote 7: See open.qobuz.com/playlist/21395182.
